CHAPTER XIV. HEROISM REWARDEDA month later Popova was still in prison, and had demonstrated that even after one has lunched for several months at the Shoreham, the New Willard and the Raleigh, he may subsist on such simple fare as bread and water. Kalora had been humiliated to the uttermost, but her spirit was unbroken and defiant. She was nominally a servant, but Jeneka and the others dared not attempt any overbearing attitude toward her, for they feared her sharp and ready wit. The fires of inward wrath seemed to have reduced her weight a few pounds, so that if ever...
Long Stories - Post by : windermere - Date : May 2012 - Author :George Ade - Read : 2764

CHAPTER XIII. THE HOME-COMINGThe Governor-General waited in the main reception-room for the truant expedition. He was hoping against hope. Orders had been given that Popova, Kalora and the whole disobedient crew should be brought before him as soon as they arrived. His wrath had not cooled, but somehow his confidence in himself seemed slowly to evaporate, as it came time for him to administer the scolding--the scolding which he had rehearsed over and over in his mind. He heard the rolling wheels grit on the drive outside, and then there was murmuring conversation in the hallway, and then Kalora entered. His...
Long Stories - Post by : windermere - Date : May 2012 - Author :George Ade - Read : 982

CHAPTER XII. THE GOVERNOR CABLES"I don't believe it. It's too good to be true. I am in a trance. It isn't you, is it?" And he was still holding her hand. "Yes--it is." "The Princess--ah--?" "Kalora." "_That's it. I was so busy thinking of you after I left your cute little country that I couldn't remember the name. I thought of 'calico' and 'Fedora' and 'Kokomo' and a lot of names that sounded like it, but I knew I was wrong. _Kalora_--_Kalora_--I'll remember that. I knew it began with a 'K.' But what in the name of all that is pure...
Long Stories - Post by : windermere - Date : May 2012 - Author :George Ade - Read : 1476

CHAPTER XI. AN OUTING--A REUNIONThe Secretary of the Legation at Washington was surprised to receive a letter from the Governor-General of Morovenia requesting him to find apartments for the Princess Kalora and a small retinue. The letter explained that the Governor-General's daughter had been given a long sea-voyage and assigned to a period of residence within the quiet boundaries of Washington, in the hope that her health might be improved. The Secretary looked up the list of hotels and boarding-houses. He did not deem it advisable to send a convalescent to one of the large and busy hotels; neither did he...
Long Stories - Post by : windermere - Date : May 2012 - Author :George Ade - Read : 2505

CHAPTER X. ON THE WINGThe train rolled away from the low and dingy station and was in the open country of Morovenia. Kalora and her elderly guardian and the young women who were to be her companions during the period of exile had been tucked away into adjoining compartments. Each young woman was muffled and veiled according to the most discreet and orthodox rules. Popova's bright red fez contrasted strangely with his silvering hair, but no more strangely than did this wondrous experience of starting for a new world contrast with the quiet years that he had spent among his books....
Long Stories - Post by : windermere - Date : May 2012 - Author :George Ade - Read : 659

CHAPTER IX. AS TO WASHINGTON, D.C.About the time that Mr. Pike arrived in Vienna, and after Kalora had been in voluntary retirement for some forty-eight hours, the famous Koldo, head of the secret police, came into possession of a most important clue. Having searched for two days, without finding the trail of the criminal with the black mustache and the German accent, he bethought himself of the wisdom of going to the garden where the intruder had engaged in a desperate struggle with the two guards. Possibly he would discover incriminating footprints. Instead, he found some scraps of paper, with printing...
Long Stories - Post by : MSCOTT - Date : May 2012 - Author :George Ade - Read : 2758

CHAPTER V. HE ARRIVESKalora was alone. After putting the company to consternation she had flung herself defiantly back into the chair and directed a most contemptuous gaze at all the desirable young men of her native land. The Governor-General made a choking attempt to apologize and explain, and then, groping for an excuse to send the people away, suggested that the company view the new stables. The acrobats were dismissed. The guests went rapidly to an inspection of the carriages and horses. They were glad to escape. Jeneka, crushed in spirit and shamed at the brazen performance of her sister, began...
Long Stories - Post by : MSCOTT - Date : May 2012 - Author :George Ade - Read : 1525

CHAPTER IV. THE GARDEN PARTYSaid the Governor-General to himself in that prime hour for wide-awake meditation--the one just before arising for breakfast: "She is not all that she should be, and yet, millions of women have been less than perfect and most of them have married." He looked hard at the ceiling for a full minute and then murmured, "Even men have their shortcomings." This declaration struck him as being sinful and almost infidel in its radicalism, and yet it seemed to open the way to a logical reason why some titled bachelor of damaged reputation and tottering finances might balance...
Long Stories - Post by : MSCOTT - Date : May 2012 - Author :George Ade - Read : 2563

CHAPTER III. THE CRUELTY OF LAWIf the father was worried by the prolonged crisis, the younger sister, Jeneka, was well-nigh distracted, for she could not hope to marry until Kalora had been properly mated and sent away. In Morovenia there is a very strict law intended to eliminate the spinster from the social horizon. It is a law born of craft and inspired by foresight. The daughters of a household must be married off in the order of their nativity. The younger sister dare not contemplate matrimony until the elder sister has been led to the altar. It is impossible for...
Long Stories - Post by : MSCOTT - Date : May 2012 - Author :George Ade - Read : 1525

CHAPTER II. KALORA'S AFFLICTIONIf it had been planned to make this an old-fashioned discursive novel, say of the Victor Hugo variety, the second chapter would expend itself upon a philosophical discussion of Fat and a sensational showing of how and why the presence or absence of adipose tissue, at certain important crises, had altered the destinies of the whole race. The subject offers vast possibilities. It involves the physical attractiveness of every woman in History and permits one to speculate wildly as to what might have happened if Cleopatra had weighed forty pounds heavier, if Elizabeth had been a gaunt and...
Long Stories - Post by : MSCOTT - Date : May 2012 - Author :George Ade - Read : 1672

CHAPTER I. WOMAN IN MOROVENIAMorovenia is a state in which both the mosque and the motor-car now occur in the same landscape. It started out to be Turkish and later decided to be European. The Mohammedan sanctuaries with their hideous stencil decorations and bulbous domes are jostled by many new shops with blinking fronts and German merchandise. The orthodox turn their faces toward Mecca while the enlightened dream of a journey to Paris. Men of title lately have made the pleasing discovery that they may drink champagne and still be good Mussulmans. The red slipper has been succeeded by the tan...
Long Stories - Post by : MSCOTT - Date : May 2012 - Author :George Ade - Read : 638

Once there was a worried Parent whose only Son could not quite make up his Mind whether to join a High School Frat or go on the Stage. He was at the long-legged Age and walked Loose and stepped on his own Feet, and whenever he walked briskly across the Floor to ask some Tessie to dance with him, every one crowded back against the Wall to avoid getting one on the Shin. He combed his Hair straight back, like a Sea Lion, and in Zero Weather wore a peculiar type of Low Shoe with a Hard-Boiled Egg in the Toe....
Short Stories - Post by : Freeboi - Date : July 2011 - Author :George Ade - Read : 2089

Once there was a Girl with a gleaming New Hampshire Forehead who used to exchange helpful Books with a studious young Man who had an Intellect of high Voltage. It will not be necessary to name these Gazooks, as you never heard of them. Laura and Edgar were Comrades, in a way. They met under the Student Lamp and talked about Schopenhauer and Walter Pater, but the Affair never got beyond that Point. It was not even warm enough to be called Platonic. It carried about as much Romantic Suggestion as a cold Hot Water Bag. There grew...
Short Stories - Post by : vlutz - Date : July 2011 - Author :George Ade - Read : 3578

Once there was a Husky employed to crack the Whip around a smoky Works that did not offer an attractive Vista from the Car Window, although it blossomed with a fragrant crop of Dividends every time the Directors got together in the Back Room. Most of the American Workingmen employed in this Hive of Industry came from remote parts of Europe. Each wore his Head entirely in front of his Ears and had taken an Oath to support the Constitution. It was the duty of the Husky to keep these imported Rabbits on the Jump and increase the Output. He...
Short Stories - Post by : exolis - Date : July 2011 - Author :George Ade - Read : 1823

One day a Married Woman who was entitled to a long row of Service Stripes on her Sleeve, sat in the Motor, and watched the remainder of the Sketch try out his new trick Monoplane. He scooted away with the Buzzer working overtime and soon was cloud- hopping about a Mile overhead. When he began doing the Eagle Swoops and the Corkscrew Dips, which so often serve as a Prelude to a good First Page Story with a picture of the Remains being sorted out from the Debris, most of the Spectators gasped and felt their Toes curling inside of their...
Short Stories - Post by : ppcmaster - Date : July 2011 - Author :George Ade - Read : 3774

One morning a great Judge, who had been promoted to the Bench because he could not connect as a Lawyer, climbed up on his Perch and directed the Lord High Sheriff to feed him a few Defendants. "We have rounded up a tough bunch of Ginks," said the Attorney for the Commonwealth. "I shall ask your Honor to Soak them good and proper." The first to be led in was a grinning Imp with a wide Mouth, large Freckles and flapping Ears. It was proven that he stuck Pins into his Grandmother and blew up Elderly Gentlemen with Cannon Crackers...
Short Stories - Post by : ssilver465 - Date : July 2011 - Author :George Ade - Read : 2742

Once there was a Hireling at the tail-end of a Pay Roll who longed to get a Chunk of Money so that he could own a House and pick out his own Wall-Paper. He read an Ad in a Religious Weekly. It said to Hurry and get a Slice of the Bullkon Mining Company because on July 1st the Price would be whooped from $1 a Share to $2.75. The Guggenheims wanted it but the Directors preferred to slip it to the American People. The Property was right up against some other Property so rich that the Workmen engaged...
Short Stories - Post by : Lori_Weiss - Date : July 2011 - Author :George Ade - Read : 1574

Once upon a Time there was a Bright Young Lawyer of ordinary Good Looks and Modest Bank Account who regarded the so-called Smart Set with scorching Contempt. Our Hero, whose name was Albert, refused to fall for the Parlor Game. Now there resided in this Town a certain High Priestess of the Socially Elect and a Queen Bee of the Cotillion Tribe. Whatever she said, Went. No one could lay claim to any Class in this Town until he had seated himself at one of her Dinners, with the $28,000 Gold Service in front of him, and dissected a French...
Short Stories - Post by : mugaan - Date : July 2011 - Author :George Ade - Read : 3538

Once in the dim dead Days beyond Recall, there lived a blue-eyed Gazook named Steve. We refer to the Period preceding the Uplift, when the Candidate wearing the largest collar was the People's Choice for Alderman. A Good Citizen wishing to open a Murder Parlor needed a couple of Black Bottles, a Barrel of Sawdust and a Pull at the City Hall. When he opened up, he threw the Key in the River and arranged to have the Bodies taken out through the Alley so as not to impede Traffic in the Main Thoroughfares. Twelve months every Year marked the Open...
Short Stories - Post by : peterlenkefi - Date : July 2011 - Author :George Ade - Read : 2887

Once there was a Porch Rat, who was also a Parlor Snake and a Hammock Hellion. He worked the popular Free Lunch Routes for thirty years before deciding to hook up and begin paying for his own Food and Drink. When he started flitting from Bud to Debutante to Ingenue to Fawn to Broiler to Kiddykadee back in 1880, he was a famous Beau with skin- tight Trousers, a white Puff Tie run through a Gold Ring and a Hat lined with Puff Satin, the same as a Child's Coffin. In 1890 he was parting his Hair in the Middle,...
Short Stories - Post by : morpheoz - Date : July 2011 - Author :George Ade - Read : 3818